Speakers

John Walters is the Director of Broadcasting for Cyclones.tv, and the former sports director at ABC5 in Des Moines. Prior to that, John worked as a sportscaster for KCCI. John is also in his 17th season as the radio play-by-play voice of the Iowa State Cyclones. He’s a Drake graduate. John and his wife, Joni, have three daughters and live in Ankeny.

Each year Dr. Jennifer Ulie-Wells trains thousands of educators, young people, families, and community providers on a variety of school mental health (SMH) topics. In 2013, she founded Please Pass the Love Youth Mental Health Initiative which provides systemic training and support for thousands of educators, schools, and districts across the Midwest while hosting the only school mental health conference in the state. In 2019, she launched the Iowa School Mental Health Alliance, an active stakeholder group with hundreds of leaders. In 2018, she launched an online school mental health program in collaboration with Drake University. She actively engages in national school mental health capacities including the National School Mental Health State Summit with leaders of federal agencies such as SAMHSA, HHS, HRSA, DOE, DOJ, and the University of Maryland Center for School Mental Health. She is a member of SMH communities of practices and the national Family School Community Alliance with scholars from across the nation. She works for Drake University as an adjunct professor. Her research focuses on racial/cultural trauma, self-care, and creating sustainable school mental health systems.